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Death Makes a Holiday A Cultural History of Halloween
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Death Makes a Holiday A Cultural History of Halloween Hardcover - 2002

by David J. Skal


From the publisher

From acclaimed cultural critic David J. Skal, an in-depth look at one of the most popular-and perplexing-holidays in America.
Using a mix of personal anecdotes and brilliant social analysis, Skal examines the amazing phenomenon of Halloween, exploring its dark Celtic history and illuminating why it has evolved-in the course of a few short generations-from a quaint, small-scale celebration into the largest seasonal marketing event outside of Christmas. Traveling the country, Skal profiles a wide cross-section of America-hard-nosed business men who see Halloween in terms of money; fundamentalists who think it is blasphemous; practicing witches who view it as sacred; and more ordinary men and women who go to extraordinary lengths, on this one night only, to transform themselves and their surroundings into elaborate fantasies. Firmly rooted in a deeper cultural and historical analysis, these interviews seek to understand what the various rituals and traditions associated with the holiday have to say about our national psyche.

First line

BECAUSE IT WAS raining on Halloween 1974, Ronald Clark O'Bryan, a thirty-year-old optician in suburban Houston, accompanied his eight-year-old son Timothy and five-year-old daughter Elizabeth on their eagerly awaited neighborhood rounds of trick or treat.

Details

  • Title Death Makes a Holiday A Cultural History of Halloween
  • Author David J. Skal
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 224
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Bloomsbury USA, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date September 21, 2002
  • ISBN 9781582342306

About the author

David J. Skal is the author of "Hollywood Gothic "and "The Monster Show," among others. With Nina Auerbach, he is the co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." A longtime New Yorker, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween
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Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween

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